Significant Growth Forecast In Biometrics Market Report

Global Industry Analysts report on the global biometric market details the growth potential of the industry over the next 5 years

GIA announces the release of a comprehensive global report on Biometrics market. Global Biometrics market is forecast to reach US$14 billion by 2015. The market is mainly driven by an increasing need for security against terrorist activity, sophisticated crimes and financial frauds. Legislative compulsions in major markets worldwide including North America, Europe and The Middle East are also expected to play an important role in furthering the cause of Biometrics. Market growth in the rapidly developing economies including Latin America and Asia Pacific would result from government expenditures and customer focused corporate investments.

Terrorist attacks, plane hijackings and increasing crime rates have underlined the need for greater security measures around the world. Consequently, biometrics is growing in eminence as an essential security measure taken at airports and other critical access sites. The e-passport projects for the US Visa waiver countries, EURODAC, Visa Information System (VIS), and the new generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) are other major drivers that are expected to encourage biometrics usage. The massive surge in number of Visa requests in Europe exemplifies the growing importance of biometrics for identity verification. Further, the limitations and incontinences with alternative identification methods through photographs, passwords and PIN codes drive the development as well as growth of biometric technologies. Biometrics usage would further increase in public sector owing to criminal and civil security issues, and in commercial sector for cost savings and convenience factors. The process of technology convergence is slated to become critical and virtually inevitable in future for sustaining growth and profitability.

The technology is forecast to witness an accelerated pace of growth in the next decade, with main emphasis on development of solutions and infrastructure. This will help in enabling mainstream biometric authentication and customer-centric corporate expenditures. Fingerprint technology and signature verification would assume leadership positions supported by factors such as pricing, high degree of accuracy and convenience.

Biometric applications in the public sector accounts for more than 50% share, and include integrated eBorders (passports, visas and border control), eIDs (National IDs and ID cards) and eGovernment (ID verification & electronic access). In 2008 and 2009, the biometrics industry witnessed low or negligible demand in non-critical IT applications, as there was drastic reduction of commercial investments in the wake of recession. However specific niche areas of development such as the time and attendance tool sustained the overall healthy pace in the market. In addition, barring few instances of withdrawals, postponements and delays of some large-scale public sector projects, biometrics industry was for the most part stable and immune through the economic slowdown.

As stated by the new market research report on Biometrics, the US dominates as the single largest worldwide market for biometrics. Europe and Asia-Pacific follow the lead at the second and third positions, respectively. The consolidated share of the US and European biometrics markets constitutes a sizeable chunk of over 60%. In terms of fastest pace, the Latin America and Asia-Pacific markets are projected to race ahead of the other world markets by the year 2015.

The Non-AFIS/Finger Scan represents the largest technology driven segment worldwide. The other leading technology, Signature Verification is slated to grow at the overall fastest pace compounded annually through 2015. The Government/Civil is one of the key end-user category of the technology, playing a critical role in its wide acceptance and proliferation. Biometric technologies are implemented in government agencies such as state, local, federal and critical military and defense-related access sites. Other important biometric end-use segments gaining prominence include Access Control/Time & Attendance, Financial and Computer & Network Security.